Add parallel Print Page Options

11 Gad went to David and told him:

You must choose how the Lord will punish you: 12 Will there be three years when the land won't grow enough food for its people? Or will your enemies constantly defeat you for three months? Or will the Lord send a horrible disease to strike your land for three days? Think about it and decide, because I have to give your answer to God who sent me.

13 David was miserable and said, “It's a terrible choice to make! But the Lord is kind, and I'd rather be punished by him than by anyone else.”

Read full chapter

11 So Gad went to David and said to him, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Take your choice: 12 three years of famine,(A) three months of being swept away[a] before your enemies, with their swords overtaking you, or three days of the sword(B) of the Lord(C)—days of plague in the land, with the angel of the Lord ravaging every part of Israel.’ Now then, decide how I should answer the one who sent me.”

13 David said to Gad, “I am in deep distress. Let me fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy(D) is very great; but do not let me fall into human hands.”

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 1 Chronicles 21:12 Hebrew; Septuagint and Vulgate (see also 2 Samuel 24:13) of fleeing